Casinos called hypocritical on issue of problem gambling

Katrina Hull

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A responsible gambling seminar organized by Indiana's gaming industry drew criticism Tuesday from a longtime gambling opponent, who called the conference hypocritical.

The Casino Association of Indiana held the half-day public education program as part of the first Indiana Gaming Education Week.

Only 15 people attended the Indianapolis event at the Madame Walker Theatre, and most of them were affiliated with the gaming industry or treatment centers for problem gamblers.

One gambling opponent called the education effort hypocritical until riverboat casinos start turning away problem gamblers.

"As long as it's sponsored by the gaming commission it is not going to get at the hub of the problem," John Wolf, Indiana coordinator for the Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, said Tuesday in a phone interview from Valparaiso.

"Any awareness is helpful," Wolf said. "But I'm suspicious of it.

"The gambling industry could not exist without problem gamblers. They make up a large share of their income."

The gambling industry will always have its critics, said Cheryl DeVol-Glowinski, the casino association's executive director.

"We can't win," she said.

During Tuesday's gambling conference, "Hoosier Millionaire" game show host Mark Patrick led a discussion by a panel of experts who treat or study problem and compulsive gamblers.

That program began with a video from the American Gaming Association showing scholars discussing the science of risk and schoolchildren learning about probability by flipping a coin.

The video included Las Vegas casino workers sharing stories of gamblers' silly rituals -- a man who changed his shirt every time he lost and a woman who placed a coin in the slot machine tray as seed money.

The audience chuckled at the video. But panelist Lori Rugle, a doctor at Winona Memorial Hospital's Custer Treatment Center for Problem and Pathological Gambling, said she has treated a man who considered selling a kidney for money to gamble.

"When you work with problematic gamblers, gambling becomes life and death issues," Rugle said. "The amusement value loses its appeal."

George Brenner, the addictions coordinator at Gallahue Mental Health Services in Indianapolis, said problem gamblers often suffer from depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Wolf said the gambling industry shucks responsibility when it attributes gambling addictions to biological-based mental disorders.

"It's hard to swallow," Wolf said. "They have made these problem gamblers by their constant marketing and advertising."

Indiana's 10 riverboat casinos have a self-exclusion program that allows people to request their names be removed from casino's marketing lists and that they be denied admission to gambling establishments, DeVol-Glowinski said.

While some Indiana residents suffer financial ruin from their gambling addictions, the state has profited from its floating casinos.

So far this year, the casinos have generated more than $244 million for the state through admission fees and wagering taxes, DeVol-Glowinski said. About $2 million of that money will go to a state program to treat gambling addictions.

Despite the meager attendance at Tuesday's event, DeVol-Glowinski said a woman who asked not to be identified made the event worthwhile.

"We found one woman and she is a frequent player and she has a problem," DeVol-Glowinski said. "She came out because she wanted to get help and now she will."